Warming in the Baltic Sea area increases blue-green algae blooms

Since 1990, the Baltic Sea has on average warmed by almost 2 °C, Finnish sea areas even more than that. Nutrient pollution has continued to visibly decrease on this millennium but the surface area of anoxic seabed is at an all-time high.

Nutrient pollution continues to be too high

Despite decreased phosphorus (-25%) and nitrogen (-12%) pollution in the Baltic Sea even after the turn of the millennium, nutrient pollution still exceeds HELCOM's goals set in the 2013 ministerial meeting. In order to reach the goal in Finland, better management of release of agricultural nutrients is in the focal point. Meanwhile nutrient pollution from point sources has significantly decreased in Finland in the last decades, measures to control diffuse pollution have only had moderate results.

Last year, the Ministry of the Environment launched a three-year programme (2019-2021) to enhance the effectiveness of water protection, and over a half of its 45 million euro budget has been allocated to new innovative methods in agricultural water protection. However, in order to completely reach the set goal, existing agricultural water protection methods must also be enhanced and better targeted.

Carbon and nutrient footprint of consumption unsustainably high

In addition to cutting down nutrient pollution, rapid measures to control global warming are needed in order to achieve the good environmental status of the Baltic Sea. In Finland, household consumption comprises two thirds of consumption-based greenhouse emissions. The Finnish carbon footprint has increased by 12% since 2000. The increase in household consumption overshadows the benefits had from the commissioning of more environmentally friendly technology. Policy measures are needed to manage consumption and to cut consumption-based emissions in order to guide households to choose goods and services with a low carbon footprint.

On average, 60% of the Baltic Sea footprint of a Finn comes from food production. According to the results of the FoodMinimum project led by Luke (Natural Resources Institute of Finland) and SYKE, reducing the consumption of animal-based products reduces the climate and eutrophication effects of diet. At the moment about 70% of all cultivated land in Finland is used for the production of animal-based food. The easiest way for an average consumer to cut total emissions is to eat more vegetables and domestic wild fish. That would decrease the need for cultivated land.

Monitoring the state of the Baltic Sea

SYKE’s marine research vessel Aranda gathers information around the entire Baltic Sea. Monitoring is carried out in collaboration with i.e. the Swedish SMHI. Automatic measuring devices installed in trade vessels monitor the temperature of surface water as well as the salinity and the amount of algae in real time. In addition, satellite images are utilised to assess the condition of the sea. Only continuous long-term monitoring activities can ensure accurate assessments of the effectiveness of sea protection measures and make sure that investments towards improvements of the condition of the sea are targeted correctly.